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I am Persuaded!

April 4, 2010 / Seán / 1 Comment

I love this. You are free.

He said so.

Read it really slowly…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

AMEN, and AMEN

(Quoted: Romans 8:35, 37-39, I John 5:4, I Corinthians 15:57, John 8:36, John 8:32, II Timothy 1:7)

The Weight of a Smile

April 3, 2010 / Seán / 2 Comments

Ask any one of my best friends. They’ll all tell you the same thing…

I love smiles.

In other words, I don’t take them for granted. Smile once when I really need one, and I’ll never, never forget.

I imagine I’m not the only one…

I was just reading today in Christ’s Object Lessons, and I landed on the power of the smile… Did you know that “Kindly affections, [&] generous impulses…are precious talents, and lay their possessor under a weighty responsibility.”?? “All are to be used in God’s service.”*

Kindly affections and generous impulses?? Hmmm… And they’re not just to be distributed to those we know and love. For “the love that gives kindness to only a few is not love, but selfishness.”*

I don’t know about you, but I live in a world that’s starving for kindness.

Don’t let God ever hear you say your talents are small… If you have a smile, you have a weighty responsibility.

Remember that, and smile at a stranger today…

*(COL 352)

The Price of Liberty

March 21, 2010 / Seán / 2 Comments

Perhaps I shouldn’t wait to post until I feel like I’ll have time to write to my heart’s content… That wont happen any time soon.

So here’s a short thought from my morning…

______________________

Liberty is a costly commodity. If it’s free to anyone, it’s because someone else paid a high price.

Thanks be to God, Someone did…

1 Corinthians 15:57

Lessons of Life…

February 25, 2010 / Seán / 6 Comments

Learn a lesson from a dog…

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Eyes fixed on the prize…

Oh yes!!

Oh dear…

* * * * * * * * *

Things are not always what you think they’ll be.

What are you striving for?

Triumphant Tale

February 18, 2010 / Seán / 4 Comments

If you want to read a triumphant tale, read Isaiah 29.

It starts out pretty depressing… Woe to David’s city, woe to it’s inhabitants!

Workers of iniquity, blind eyes, thirsting lips, empty souls…

Her enemies, many. Her walls, rubble.

Her prophets, deaf and dumb… Their prophecies, null.

Heads spinning, feet staggering, and hearts far away…

But then comes verse 17.

And it’s as if the prophet lifts his eyes from the here and now, and sees the gleams of a golden morning.

The deaf will hear, the blind will see…

And the darkness? Gone… gone!

Oh, dear child of the Highest… Lift up your eyes.

Behold the morning!

There’s always one coming, you know. It matters not how dark and cold the night. No night has ever been so dark that morning could not come. And no morning has ever been delayed even a second past its appointed time.

We just need to see through darkness.

And want more good news?

The night is always followed by the morning… But the morning will not always be followed by night.

Light will win in the end…

With My Whole Heart…

January 19, 2010 / Seán / 3 Comments

“The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven.

They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven.

For these souls, the kingdom of God has begun.

They have Christ’s joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity.”

Just one more reason…

One more reason to give my whole heart.

Here’s to all my friends from the Northeast Youth Retreat–

Your hearts and lives are forever bound with my prayers. My heart is with you, because your victory, your success, your confidence and your happiness, are my treasures.

And where one’s treasure is, there one’s heart is also.

Let’s pray for each other on the 17th.

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Every Time!

January 13, 2010 / Seán / 1 Comment

I’ve seldom seen a sky so blue, smelled air so sweet, felt the sun so perfectly warm… and been perfectly oblivious to it. That is, until I saw the light…

I was on the hillside airing my brain with prayers and a journal. Hours of work behind me, hours still ahead… The snow still 8 inches deep in spots around me, my mind 1,000 miles away. One word kept coming up… Impossible.

For a time, I prayed and prayed… And then I walked off of the hillside, ready.

That’s when I stepped in the entry door to find Tasha in the final stages of lunch prep.

“I’ve just got one question, and my question is this: When irresistible power meets immovable object, who wins?”

She stopped mid-step and looked at me. (I love that look…) Silence. One hand on the Vita-Mix, the other on a bag of frozen tropical fruit. Then, a smile…

“Irresistible Power.”

Now it’s my turn…
“Every time.”

“Oh, that’s awesome…” (in the true sense of the word)…

Yes. I’m thankful…

Nobility

January 12, 2010 / Seán / 1 Comment

Nobility…

Today’s prevalent interpretation of that term lands us on a set of actions. To be noble is to be gentle, honorable, worthy, generous, sacrificing… It’s about character. And indeed, a noble person is loved, esteemed and respected because they are few and far between… Everyone wants to claim them as a friend.

I read this morning that “The highest evidence of nobility in the Christian is self-control.”

“Self control??” Yeah… I’ve read it before. Perhaps you have too.

But wait, there’s that other meaning of nobility… Not the description of actions, but the state of being. Recall our word comes from an old French one, which in turn came from a Latin one meaning “highborn”. We’re not just talking about what you do, but who you are.

So is self-control is the highest evidence of our kinship with the King? An attestation of royalty?

That’s what I read…

So Many Faces…

January 8, 2010 / Seán / 2 Comments

From a conference dripping with miracles I return a stronger man, a more exuberant Christian, a humbled, baffled, incredulous, encouraged, inspired child of the God Who never tires of giving… As if I really deserved anything from His hand in the first place!

There were so many faces… Thousands of windows to souls I know nothing about… But then there were probably 1,000 that I did know… and do love. So many smiles! So many transformations… And then there were a few faces that told special stories I’ll long remember… Like the one that smiled through tears when I talked about heaven. And the one that laughed and cried at once. And the one that flushed undiluted earnestness and devotion while praying for a miracle…

Yes, Jesus gives… Jesus loves! And never has my heart loved His more.

And shame? Yes. Shame on being afraid to own Him! Shame on trying to walk without Him! If any will glory, glory in the cross…

————————————-

Here are a few more faces… from around this big country we call our home. Some think “Oklahoma Family Campmeeting,” some think “Youth for Jesus 2009″…

We think–

“Reunion”

The Ultimate Self-Sacrifice…

December 2, 2009 / Seán / 3 Comments

Ok, get this…

The greatest prophet that ever lived finds himself confined to the solitude of a dungeon cell in Herod’s impregnable fortress… Yet, notwithstanding the darkness, the damp, his bodily suffering, his loneliness, his uncertainty, it is his heart that is pained most of all. And this time, it’s not because his followers have forgotten him, but rather because they haven’t…

I just read in Desire of Ages this morning that John the Baptist was pained because his disciples’ affection for him was slowing them up from receiving Jesus… It’s as if he would rather dispense with their love and die friendless than steal influence from the One he was about to give his life for… Oh, he was not always without questions of his own, but his loyalty never wavered…

That’s the ultimate self-sacrifice…

And how can I do any less? Oh Jesus, let me never accept affections that should be Yours…